Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition Director Dr. Aristotle Voineskos has just been named to the prestigious Top 40 Under 40 list of Canada’s top young movers and shakers.
Dr. Voineskos, 39, was one of only five scientists or doctors who made the list from across the country.
The criteria for inclusion was broken down into five broad categories: innovation, achievement and impact, growth and development strategy, social responsibility, and vision and leadership.
“With the Slaight Centre, the leadership aspect was about transforming care for young people with early psychosis,” said Dr. Voineskos. “We are leading an integrated culture of research, education and clinical innovation, fundamentally changing access to, and quality of, care.”
His work at the Slaight Centre since his appointment in 2015 has led to substantial improvements in access to treatment for young Canadians with early signs of mental illness, growth of clinically-translatable research among clinicians and scientists, and an increased focus on ensuring delivery of gold-standard care.
Dr. Voineskos also leads a cutting-edge research program in brain imaging in the Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Laboratory, which has led to the publication of approximately 100 peer-reviewed research papers. It has also garnered millions of dollars in research grants from Canadian and U.S. federal agencies, that has allowed Dr. Voineskos and his team to lead large international collaborations.
“We are leading a number of multi-centre studies of a landmark nature funded by the (U.S.) National Institutes of Health focused on brain disorders across the lifespan. One of the most exciting, challenging, and fulfilling aspects of the work is that we are a large team of teams, giving us the chance to make major advances that would be hard to do alone. And it’s really special to do this through our leadership on projects across a number of academic centres in North America.
Dr. Voineskos and the rest of the Top 40 Under 40 award winners will be feted at a special gala in Toronto this November.